Beginnings can feel a little rocky. The mix of excitement, anticipation, and sense of potential can make that first step seem both extremely important and wildly risky. ‘What if it all goes wrong?’ sits right next to ‘What if it all goes right?’
For our beginning, we’re going to start in the same place we like to start any new beginning: with the ending. Ultimately, our end goal is to share resources and knowledge that can support your career growth.
In each issue, we’ll take a question we get about careers and, in five minutes or less, you’ll get advice you can use. We’ll stick to a single theme for several issues, exploring topics from various angles and diving into the details throughout each series.
First up: the resume.
There are so many good reasons to revisit your resume, whether or not you are among the many people looking to change positions this year. (How many depends on who you ask. GOBankingRates, a financial website, reports that 20 percent of people they surveyed said they planned to pursue a new full-time role or career in 2023, whereas job website Monster.com’s survey revealed 96 percent.)
So, first things first: Where do you want to end up?
Although you can always write your resume without knowing your end goal, when you’re clear on what you’re aiming for, you can build a resume (or LinkedIn profile) perfectly tailored to your dream. Start by spending some time imagining your goal specifically. If your ideal outcome is a new job, for example, consider what job titles align with the work you’d like to do, the way you’d like to do it, and the industry you’d like to do it in.
If you aren’t sure, here are some reflection questions to get started:
- How do you feel when you are at your best at work?
- What types of work activities and environments encourage you to feel that way?
- What would need to change in order to get more opportunities to do those activities, be in those environments, or feel your best at work?
It may help to frame your goal in the form of a resume objective or LinkedIn summary. We’ll talk more about that later in the series. For now, you can find more tips for setting your career goals in this article, or, explore personal and professional success more deeply in this series of online courses from the University of Pennsylvania.
Next week, we’ll talk about identifying the in-demand job skills for your goal position. If you’re open to it, drop your dream role in the comments below—we can pick a few to use as examples in the next issue. See you there.